Retired agent: FBI saw 'coming storm' of shootings

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - A pair of mass shootings over the weekend, which left more than 30 people dead in two cities, hit close to home for a survivor of the Pulse night club massacre.

Amanda Grau, a Tampa-native, was in Orlando, at Pulse the night of the shooting in 2016. She said her emotions are still raw, particularly when she hears about situations like the ones Saturday and Sunday.

"That night, I felt like I was a target and I was basically gunned down like an animal," Grau, who was shot multiple times, told FOX 13. "It's a very hard thing to go through. It definitely is. I live with it every day. I have reminders, like stuff like this happening over the weekend, and it just plays back in my mind what happened to me. It's not fair."

In El Paso Saturday afternoon, 22 people were killed when a gunman opened fire in a Walmart. Early the next day, a shooter gunned down nine people in a nightlife district in Dayton, Ohio. Dozens more were injured in both shootings.

Grau said she is beginning to feel like a broken record.

"We all need to stand together more now than ever," she said. "These mass shootings have gone way too far and it is totally out of control."

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As upsetting as the shootings are to Dave Couvertier, a retired FBI special agent from Tampa, they're also not surprising.

"We knew it was coming. The FBI for years has been calling out the coming storm," he said.

Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Couvertier helped train Bay Area authorities about how to deal with active shooters.

But Couvertier said federal law enforcement has been warning about attacks in which shooters will target crowded, public areas with a low level of security.

"We can't protect [those places] from [being targeted] 100 percent. It's just not going to happen. The way we can do that is outside. It's going to be with Congress. It's going to be with setting up a database. It's going to be enforcing and helping law enforcement," he told FOX 13.

Couvertier also urges businesses to train their employees to help customers.

Above all, however, he believes people need to be prepared with, what he calls, a 60-second plan to survive.

"In 60 seconds, people died. The clock starts with the first shot," he said, adding people need to know where to run or hide and where exits are.

Couvertier is hopeful a new law in Florida, which allows authorities and schools to compile information into one database, will help law enforcement identify potential mass shooters and get them the help they need before they act.